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A Labouring Man’s Christmas 1878
In early December 1878 a Dear Editor letter was printed in the Deal, Walmer & Sandwich Mercury, signed a ‘Labouring Man.’
He writes, in an almost conversational style that suggests he is not used to writing formal letters, saying ‘It’ll perhaps seem rather odd for me to trouble you with what troubles me being as we are entire strangers’ he goes on to say that his ‘…missus says there be no harm in it…’
The reason he was writing was to complain about the prices charged by the local butchers. His ‘missus,’ he said, had heard that good meat from America could be bought at 6d a pound but he ‘…ain’t seen none about here…’ Even so he thought that with so much meat about then this ought to make Deal butchers sell their meat more cheaply to ‘…give us poor folks a chance…the missus and the children will get meat a Christmas day…’
The week before there had been a small article, in the local newspaper, reporting that the importation of Australian and American meat had caused a great fall in the price of sheep and cattle. The butchers though had not altered their prices which, ‘…ought to be reduced twopence in the pound…’ If the butchers did not do this soon, the article warned, a ‘cheap butcher’ would set up shop and sell the ‘…finest of foreign meat for Christmas …and be of great benefit to the poor…’
Our ‘Labouring Man’ proudly describes his ‘missus’ as ‘…a better woman for managing ……you won’t find …’ saying how far she can make his 15 shillings a week go to keep him and their eight young children.
Now we don’t know who ‘Labouring Man’ is but we know that he has eight children who are all still dependent on him and that he wanted to give them a special treat of a little meat for Christmas Day.
So how far could his ‘missus’ make his 15 shillings a week go and what would their Christmas be like?
~20s to the pound and 12d to a shilling~
Rent and Fuel
After paying their weekly rent which would have been between 3s and 4s a week, then, if they used oil lamps then that would cost them about 3d and coal another 1s-6d, leaving the ‘missus’ with around 6s for food and clothing.
Reading the newspapers shows that ‘meat’ was top of the Christmas fare, described, discussed and advertised at the time but we will come back to that. First let us look at what else made Christmas special for those ‘labouring’ families of Deal & Walmer.
Christmas Cards
Greetings card, John Callcott Horsley, 1843, England. Museum no. MSL.3293-1987. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Christmas Cards were still relatively new in 1878 but their popularity had grown and mass production made them affordable even to those ‘labouring’ classes.
The concept of a card can be traced to around 1840 and to one man, Henry Cole. People had always sent by post Christmas and New Year greetings. These were usually in a letter which sometimes were hand decorated. Stationers also sold seasonally decorated letterheads. For a busy man like Henry Cole this took far too much time and energy. At the time Henry had been reforming the British postal system and helping with the introduction of the Penny Post. This made the posting and receiving of mail easier and reliable. According to the V & A, of which he was also the founding director, the Cole household around Christmas had mail piling up that all needed responding to. So ever the entrepreneur, Henry looked for a timesaving, and perhaps money making, solution. He approached his artist friend, John Callcott Horsley who illustrated his idea and the Christmas Greetings card was born. At first these were sold in bookshops and stationers at “ninepence the two designs”
Deal Walmer Sandwich Mercury 7 December 1878
One of Deal’s stationers, Thomas Gedge, was offering his customers Christmas Cards at a penny each in 1878. A year later German imports brought in packs of 12 for a penny but even so their price and the price of a stamp for each card would make buying and sending cards for a ‘Labouring Man’ low down on his Christmas priorities list.
Gifts & Presents
Presents for his eight children would not have been like those we give today. Even though newsagent Edward Culmer was offering ‘TOYS of every description, extremely cheap’ our Labouring Man’s children would probably have received homemade or maybe even second hand gifts. Skipping ropes, rag dolls, carved boats, animals and soldiers would have been fairly easy to make from items found on the beach or around the home. It is more likely they just would have had fruit and nuts in a stocking as was the tradition.
Christmas Trees
Christmas Trees had made their first appearance in Britain in the 1800s but their widespread popularity is attributed to Prince Albert, particularly after a wood engraving of the Royal family posed around a Christmas Tree was published in the Illustrated London News in 1848. This image,when it appeared on Christmas Cards, helped embed the tradition of the Christmas Tree we have today.
Our Labouring Man’s tree, if they had one, was probably a decorated tree branch with dried fruits and hand made decorations hung from it. Any presents were, in all likelihood, just placed under the ‘tree’ as can be seen in this colourised version of the Royal family’s Christmas.
People though had always decorated their homes with winter greenery and this is what our Labouring Man and his family almost certainly did. Taken from the hedgerows, festive greenery was, after all, free.
Christmas Dinner
So we come back to food again. Our Labouring Man and his family, even if they still had a want for meat, appear to at least have food on the table. There were many who did not and with typical Victorian charitable values they were provided for at Park Street, Public Rooms, on January 1 1879, when 280 of Deal’s ‘indigent poor, aged and infirm’ as ‘invited guests’ sat down to a dinner of a ‘substantial character.’ The dinner consisted of ‘beef and mutton, an abundance of vegetables, plum-pudding, beer, tea, coffee.’ Throughout the afternoon, and to entertain the guests, St. Andrew’s choir sang Christmas Carols.
According to the newspaper report, the idea of Mayor James Lush was put on with help from the town’s affluent ladies and gentlemen. On the following day we are told that about 500 small children gathered and ‘regaled themselves off the scraps of roast beef and plum-pudding.’
Deal Walmer Sandwich Mercury 20 December 1879
Plum-pudding
The origins of Plum-pudding can be traced back centuries from a pottage with fruit added to it to a solid pudding boiled, or steamed in a cloth, that our Victorian diners would have enjoyed.
Dried fruit stores well so, the ‘missus,’ could have gradually bought what she required as perhaps in readiness for ‘stir up Sunday,’ which occurred on the fifth Sunday before Christmas and based, by the Victorians, on the Prayer
“Stir up, we beseech thee, oh Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously
bringing forth the fruit of good works, may by thee be plenteously rewarded;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.”
Even with a lack of meat and a small amount of vegetables a Plum-pudding would have filled the families bellies. Made with flour, suet, and even with a small amount of sugar and dried fruit it would have made for a hearty sweet pudding. Traditionally it was served with custard or brandy butter but again even if these weren’t affordable to our family, the hot pudding, at around 9d or a 1s. would have been, nonetheless, enjoyed.
Beef & Mutton
And so we are back to the meat and the butchers. As we’ve already said beef and mutton, not goose or turkey, were at the heart of our ‘Labouring Man’s’ complaint. Even Mayor Lush’s dinner guests were served the former. Goose has been traditionally linked to Christmas and was on sale in the Deal & Walmer Poulterers. Turkey, as featured in Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol, gradually took over in popularity. Beef and mutton though, it seems, was the Christmas meat of choice in Deal & Walmer, at least in 1878.
Now, we obviously don’t know whether our ‘Labouring Man’, his ‘missus’ and eight children had their wish for meat at Christmas granted, but if they did let us hope they had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Butchers (circa 1913)